Jane & Cass
by Precambrian Studios
Summary: On the run from a past she wished she could forget, Jane Lane and her brother move to Highland, Texas, where Jane enrolls in the local high school and bonds with a certain student...


"…..and then he ended up puking on some girl in the front row," Trent said to Jane as they rode in his beaten-up SAAB together.

"Well, just goes to show you never buy blue bug zappers," Jane smirked.

Trent gave a laugh. "Yeah. Love telling that story."

"I know you do. I can tell, because you always forget how it ends."

"I do?" he frowned. Trent turned a left. As he drove down a street, he and Jane saw two teenagers being chased down by a cop. The teens seemed to be enjoying it. Seeing that, it reminded Trent of his own high-school days.

Jane saw the whole thing and arched an eyebrow. "Huh. Looks like having the man come after you is the traditional pastime around this neighborhood."

"Looks like," Trent confirmed. He turned another corner. After driving for another minute, he hit a red light at a busy intersection. He glanced at Jane. "So, first day of school. Good luck."

"Luck is for the unlucky. So…..y'know what, I think I might need it after all. So thanks, I guess."

"No problem." The light turned green and Trent pressed onto the pedal. The car sputtered and coughed as it steadily accelerated. Trent slammed his fist into the dash-board to see if that would make it stop. To his surprise, it worked.

"When was the last time you had the engine checked?" Jane asked. She looked through the rear window, half-expecting the trunk to have spontaneously combusted.

Trent smirked. "Not since I used this baby to destroy Ms. Li's lawn."

Her curiosity piqued, Jane crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. "You never talked about that," she noted. She knew this was going to be either funny or really, REALLY weird.

"Yeah, I went over to her house and completely shredded her grass. Looked like some kind of Zen garden when I was done with it." Even though he relished the memory, he sighed and said to Jane, "Promise me you'll never do anything like that?"

"Why? You afraid somehow Li will find out and track you down?"

"No, it's just that it'd kill mom if you got expelled too."

Jane waved her hand dismissively. "Whatever. Mom's never here anyways, don't see why it matters."

"I'm serious Janie. Promise?"

"Aw, but Trent. What if I feel some kind of uncontrollable urge to set a building on fire?"

"Buy some matches and a model of a fire-house?"

They shared a laugh between themselves. When they had calmed down, Jane said, "Well, maybe it won't be so bad. I might be lucky, find someone to paint with me or something. Always wanted a partner."

Trent peered out of his window and saw the school pass by. "Agh, dammit!" he cursed. "Missed it." He made a U-turn and pulled up into the drop-off.

Picking up her back-pack, Jane got of the car and waved to her brother. "Remember Trent, three o'clock."

He nodded. "Three o'clock."

"Don't forget."

"Sure."

"Trent…." she said in a warning tone.

"I said three o'clock."

Jane rolled her eyes; he always said it, but he never remembered. Ah well. "See you." She waved as he brother drove off.

She turned and started walking up the steps. Hopefully, this time around it's going to better, she thought. No catastrophes or major disasters, a normal year, she hoped. It'd been her desire for the past three months to start anew, leave her disastrous freshman year behind.

Against her own will, Jane thought back to the two incidents that had damned her: the boy, falling down the stairs, everyone looking at her, thinking she had done it, then her running, running and crying, running to get away from them all, as if that would fix things. And then the ambulance as it-

Woompf! Jane had stumbled so far into her thoughts that she ended up walking into another student. "Oh, uh, sorry," she said. "Didn't see you."

The girl, a long-haired brunette with glasses, recovered her footing and said in a friendly monotone voice, "That's all right. It happens." The girl frowned. "Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you before."

Jane gave a somewhat reluctant nod; she felt that old shame creeping up on her. "New as a newborn."

The brunette smiled. "That's a nice analogy."

"Uh…..thanks."

"Sure." The girl's eyes wandered over to Jane's backpack. Her expression brightened. "Is that a paint-brush?"

"Hm? Oh, uh, yeah. I got accepted into the AP Arts program."

"Me too!"

"That so?" Jane's tone became friendlier.

"Yes, I love art!"

"Really?" Jane found herself suddenly interested in this brunette. "You draw in your spare time?"

"Yes, as much as I can!"

"Really? What do you draw?"

"Expressive and minimalist landscapes and portraits, they soothe me."

Jane was impressed: "You're the first kid my age I've ever met use the name of a style and a type of emotion in the same sentence."

The brunette smiled. "Thank you."

Jane realized she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Jane, by the way. You?"

"Cassandra."

"Well Cassandra, what period do you have AP art?"

"First."

"Me too. Wanna head over there now?"

"Sure!" Cassandra gave a glowing smile, which made Jane suspicious for a moment that this girl was luring her into some kind of trap, but the multi-colored stains on the back of Cassandra's shapeless blue dress convinced her of her sincerity.

Well, Jane thought, feeling a sudden sense of optimism, First day at Highland High and I might have already made a friend. That isn't bad going.


End file.
